


Scrap

by thatslemishgirl



Category: Fire Emblem Series
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, My First Fanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 13:30:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13502501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatslemishgirl/pseuds/thatslemishgirl
Summary: Marth had four options: report the fight and get called a tout, step in and perhaps get shouted at if caught, stand back and watch or just walk on like nothing was happening.





	Scrap

Wake up. Eat breakfast. Walk to the bus stop. Get the bus to school. Attend lessons. Come home. Complete homework. Do whatever. That’s how Marth’s days usually went while he was educated at the College of Emblemia.

But not today.

The sky was bright and cloudless, rare for an Emblemian February. At that time of year, it was usually wet and dark. Birds chirped louder than they normally did. The sun shone as hard as it could and there was a generally unusual air to the morning.

Marth woke to the sound of stoneware smashing. He sat up with a start and got out of bed to figure out what had broken.

“Marth!” he heard his sister, Elice, shout. “Get dressed and come down here!”

He quickly gathered his uniform and put it on. The navy-blue blazer and trousers almost matched his hair and the dull red jumper stood out like a dove amongst crows. He grabbed his schoolbag and rushed downstairs to see what Elice wanted.

She stood behind a shattered bowl.

“What am I supposed to say to Mother?” she asked, bewildered.

“That you dropped it,” replied Marth.

“That’s not helpful, Marth.”

“Tell her you got startled by some noise or whatever actually happened.”

Elice took a dustpan and brush, swept up the shards and put them in the bin. Out of the cupboard Marth took an apple and bit into it. The apple reflected the February sun on its red peel.

It was another half-hour until the pair left the house. They walked to the bus-stand.

A gust of wind ruffled Elice’s hair and blew Marth’s timetable out of his hand. He ended chasing it into a nearby field, luckily devoid of any livestock. After he had retrieved it, he clambered back over the fence, and tripped over it. He fell flat on his face and earned the laughs of those who had watched.

“Nice one, Marth!” Elice mocked

“Watch where you’re going!” called over an old lady.

Brushing himself off, he joined those who stood in wait for the school bus.

They all conversed with one another, the topic of discussion being the hateful teacher Ms Walford. One of the older students had just told a story of how he got a detention for not understanding something.

“…If you think that’s ridiculous, I once got a break-time for sneezing,” said Caeda.

“You got a detention for SNEEZING?!” questioned another student.

“She thought I was faking,” answered Caeda. “Marth’ll tell you himself.”

Marth though back to that day. It had been dead silent as Ms Walford had forbidden speaking. It was winter at the time – December, to be exact – and a prime cold season. They’d been working on Population Choropleth Maps (Geography) when it happened.

“I thought I said no talking! Come here at break tomorrow!” she had yelled.

Marth really wasn't sure how sneezing was the same as talking.

As they spoke, the bus had pulled up. All the students boarded. Marth was the last to get on and took the only remaining seat, beside the PE bags.

X-X

History class was tedious. Students struggled to stay awake as their teacher droned on at any time of the day, so the fact the lesson was first thing in the morning didn’t help. No one was even told what to write, so they took notes on what they deemed important. No wonder their History grades were lower than a lowered Bora that you might see around the back lanes.

Only a select few students routinely managed to keep their eyes open. They had all taken the front seats, so Mr Oaks could see them awake. It was a well-known fact that Mr Oaks never really paid attention to the back row. If he asked what they were at, which was rare, the front-row students would say they were writing hard.

As a result of almost everyone sleeping, the ones who did listen and did take notes had to pass them on to the others. It was a nearly impossible task, as there were so many who needed to learn and eight people to teach them.

First of all was Marth himself, and most came to him as they said he made it ‘brilliant’. He managed to make it entertaining (somehow), and the information stayed in the students’ minds.

Secondly, there was Caeda. She lived in Marth’s neighbourhood and the two were friends.

Thirdly, there was Roy. Roy was Marth’s best friend, although he was regularly teased for being ginger. Roy lived in a small town called Feh, not far from Arion, where Marth lived.

Next, there was Leo, a blonde boy who defied the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype by being top of the class. His home’s whereabouts was unknown to Marth, but he knew it was at least half an hour from the school.

After Leo was Takumi, a close second to Leo. Takumi lived in the countryside, near where Leo lived.

Following was Ike, and his friend Soren. Both lived in Lomoc.

Finally, there was Celica. She was the only one from where she lived in the class.

The group sat at one desk and each would write down different notes, then compare them at the end.

X-X

Next was a lively Spanish class. Marth took his seat beside Leo. The seats had been pre-picked by their teacher. Marth liked his seat as Leo was good at the subject and Marth not so.

Today they were learning about colours. On the whiteboard was the words and their meanings for the class to copy down.

_Rojo – red_   
_Amarillo – yellow_   
_Azul – blue_   
_Rosa – pink_   
_Morado – purple_   
_Negro – black_   
_Grise – grey_   
_Naranja – orange_   
_Marrón – brown_

“Hey, did you hear that?” asked Leo suddenly as they worked.

“Hear what?” asked Marth in return.

“Those insults behind us,” replied Leo. Marth looked backwards and began to overhear the argument.

The two kids that sat behind them never really got along. In their first year, they had nearly become involved in a fight. Now, in their second year, they thought the teachers would have put them far from each other. That had not happened.  
Marth turned back to his work and tried to ignore what was happening behind his back.

The bell rang, and Marth noticed the argument had ended.

X-X

It was when Marth was walking around at break that he heard reports of a fight.

He asked Takumi what was happening. He knew nothing about it. Marth told him what he had heard. Knowing little of it, the two walked up to where the fight was occurring.

The scene in front of them was horrific.

Punches and kicks flew in every direction. A circle enclosed the combatants. People cheered and jeered and chanted.

Marth had four options: report the fight and get called a tout, step in and perhaps get shouted at for fighting if caught, stand and watch or just walk on like nothing was happening.

More people surrounded the fight. Among them were Roy, Leo and Caeda. Marth waved them over.

“I say we break it up,” declared Marth.

“How will we get through the crowd, though? I doubt they would want to move, and they’d think we were trying to get a better view,” remarked Takumi.

“We tell them we’re trying to break it up,” responded Caeda.

“And if they don’t move, we push through,” said Leo

The group quickly discussed a plan of action and resolved to stick to it.

“Hey! Break it up!” shouted Caeda as they made their way through the mass of students.

The two boys took no notice of what was said. They continued to fight. Roy rushed in to prise the duo apart.

“Get off!” shouted one.

Marth moved in to keep them apart. The boy struggled against his grip. He was covered in marks and bruises from the actions of the other boy. “What do you need to fight for?” questioned Marth, who preferred peaceful discussion rather than violence.

“He needs a lesson!” shouted the boy.

“Me? I need a lesson?” retorted the other. He broke off from Roy and lunged at the other. Roy came over and tugged him away, obviously unamused.

The others moved between the boys to create a wall. “Can’t you settle things civilly?” asked Caeda. “There’s no need for this. You’ll both just get yourselves in trouble. Which would end well for neither of you.”

“It would also be more logical to settle things differently to how you are now,” pointed out Leo. “As Caeda said, you’d both get yourselves in trouble, which would get you punished. That punishment would most likely be a suspension. That would go down on record, which would make employability slightly harder. Also, fighting would show just how immature you-”

His sentence was broken off by a punch. The boy who was supposed to be held back by Roy had escaped. He began to act as if he was fighting with Leo.

“This,” he began, “serves. You. Right. For. Being. A. Smart. Arse.” Each word was accompanied with a blow. Roy came forth to put an end to the assault. Just then, a loud voice yelled down.

“STOP!”

People glanced over to see Mr Conroy, a Maths teacher, advancing towards the group of students. Some ran in the opposite direction.

“WHAT is going on here?!”  
Nobody answered. Marth glanced over at everyone else enclosed in the ring.

“WHY are you fighting?! Why didn’t everyone try to do anything?!”

“T-That’s why we’re here, sir. We were trying to break it up,” explained Caeda sheepishly.

“All of you in the circle. Follow me,” ordered Mr Conroy. The students obediently walked. They were lead to the reception. Mr Conroy spoke briefly before sending each student into a different office. Marth was sent to Mrs Gallagher.

“Sit,” she commanded.

Marth took a seat as ordered.

“Marth Altea,” she said, “I’d never imagine you in a fight.”

“I wasn’t fighting, miss,” he replied. “I was involved for the sole reason of putting it to a halt. The same goes for Caeda, Leo, Takumi and Roy.”

“I want you to explain everything,” she said. “In full detail. How you knew it was happening. What you did when you arrived. Why you chose your actions.”

“It started off,” began Marth, “when I heard rumours. People were running to see it, so I asked Takumi about it, I wanted to see if he knew, which he didn’t. We spoke briefly before deciding to see what was happening, with the intention of putting it to a stop.

“We arrived there to see many punches and kicks being aimed. Takumi and I walked up to discuss what we would do. That’s when Roy, Leo and Caeda arrived. We flagged them over and told them we wished to step in. They agreed to help us.

“So Caeda shouted over for them to stop, and when it didn’t we broke through the crowd. Roy got them apart and together we restrained each of them. Caeda and Leo then tried to reason with them, which resulted in Leo getting punched, then Mr Conroy came and shouted at everyone.”

Marth hadn’t noticed that Mrs Gallagher was noting what he said until then. He wondered what punishment he would serve, even though he had done nothing wrong.

“Alright. You may leave and sit outside,” she said.

He got up and left the room. Takumi too sat outside alongside Caeda and Roy.

“I’ll put money on that Leo’s giving this huge speech to try convince whoever he’s talking to that we’re not at fault,” said Takumi. “What was it like for you in there with her?”

Marth told them about what happened in the office. The other three listened intently. After he had finished explaining, he sat on a chair with green upholstery that was slightly darker than the walls and returned the question.

“Well, basically the same as you. That happened with all of us,” replied Takumi.  
Five minutes later, Leo appeared from Mr McIlroy’s room.

“I suppose you were telling this long, descriptive story to get them to understand why you were there,” remarked Roy.

“Well, there was that, then a lot of questions that the long, descriptive story covered but Mr McIlroy asked anyway,” said Leo.

“You can sit on Takumi’s knee,” said Marth jokingly, noticing there were only four chairs. He did not expect Leo to actually do that, but lots of unexpected things happened in Marth’s life.

“Get off, Leo,” uttered Takumi.

“Love you too, babe,” replied Leo. The others began to laugh. Takumi blushed.

“Are you two a thing?” asked Caeda.

“No. Non. Nein,” retorted Takumi.

The headmaster appeared from the corner.

“Hello, sir,” said Caeda.

“Hello,” he replied. “I just came to thank you for your honesty. You may go.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Roy. The four quickly departed for the next class. It wasn’t as bad as Marth first anticipated.

**Author's Note:**

> (I actually know someone who got a detention for sneezing, so it's not impossible)


End file.
